Detroit Lions: The more the NFL changes, the more it stays the same

One of my good friends made a comment during the Super Bowl about how ‘the Lions just couldn’t compete with a high scoring offense like the Rams, which is why they’ll never win it all’.  While I admired his depressing initiative at work, I felt like it was completely misguided.

I think we all understand what kind of league the NFL has become. It’s all about the offense. Now let’s start with the fact that almost all rules that are regarding player safety benefit the offense. I have no issue with those, because of the fundamental idea that player safety should be a priority.

Thus in order to protect players, many defensive weapons that used to routinely send offensive players to the hospital have gone the way of the Dodo bird. Again this is for the good of the game and I don’t have an issue with it. I mean can you imagine if old school tactics like the clothesline and head slap were still legal?

Players have to adjust to any and all changes and a good example of that is Lions safety Quandre Diggs. He still routinely lays out ball-carriers, but he does it with legal hits. Which means that not only can it be done, but it can be done effectively.

However, many rules are only in place for the sake of giving the offense every advantage possible with the idea of promoting exciting offensive football.

The NFL absolutely subscribes to the old theory of ‘offense sells tickets’. Which wouldn’t be wrong. Take the Super Bowl for example. Its ratings were down and fans across the board complained about how boring it was.

Yet would it have been more interesting if the Patriots had won 42-3? Or if the Rams had exploded and rumbled to a 56-14 win? As entertaining as an explosive offense is, it’s not much better to watch a blowout.

While the artistic value of the best defensive showdown in Super Bowl history will be argued by bored fans, this much was a fact; the game was close throughout its entirety and until Greg Zuerlein’s final missed field goal, could have gone either way.

A couple more touchdowns distributed among both teams for higher scoring, yet a still close game that came down to the finish would have been applauded by fans everywhere. But this was a day for the defense and a firm reminder about how important it still is.